Starting today, I accept a new writing challenge

It's easy in life to assess the impact of what is plainly before us. Noticing what's missing and how it affects us--that's more challenging.

This thought has occurred to me a lot lately. A jobless recovery will do that to you.

The economy is supposed to be recovering. The want ads should be growing. But they're not.

The trouble: The jobs are missing. They have gone elsewhere. To China probably, or India or Mexico. Missing jobs are one of the year's big stories.

The Sept. 11 anniversary showed how the missing can affect our lives. We've lost a sense of safety, we've lost thousands of lives. And the absences have transformed the World Trade Center into a national symbol.

There is a hole in the sky where the World Trade Center once stood. The not-there-ness of it is jarring. What rises in that space could become a symbol of hope and renewal.

Sometimes what's missing can work for the good. Bank One and McDonald's are Chicago's two biggest turnaround stories in the five years I have written this column.

Both companies benefited by the subtraction of unsuccessful CEOs. Bank One's Jamie Dimon and McDonald's Jim Cantalupo came in with back-to-basics styles that turned subtraction into addition for their companies.

It doesn't always work this way. Sometimes, subtraction only subtracts.

At Motorola, the company seemed to have a chance when Ed Breen was lined up to take the chief executive's role from the chronically struggling Chris Galvin. Breen went off to Tyco International Ltd. and began a reversal of misfortune there.

Breenless, Motorola struggles just to muddle through. Barely.

It's tricky to put a finger on what's missing. It's not easy to judge, measure or adjust to a void. It's difficult to see, and it can be tough to fix.

When I write my column, any good editor can offer useful comment on what I have written. What I need more, sometimes, is to see what I have left out.

I may have missed an argument that makes all the difference. Maybe there's a fact or thought that can bolster the piece. The best editors, like the best managers in any business, can see what we're not doing just as well as they can see what is already done.

Regular readers of this column may have noticed something missing from the Tribune's Business section lately. For the last few weeks, the column was moved from the front page and published on Page 2.

That will no longer be the case after today. The column won't run on Page 2. It won't run on the front page, either. It will not run at all.

This turn of events started with a decision by my editors. Two months ago, the editors decided to move the column off of the front page. My gut told me, almost immediately, that I didn't want to write for Page 2. Eight weeks of trying has not changed my mind.

What went missing, in my view, was the sense of impact, the notion that the column mattered enough to deserve prominent display. The column sought to challenge readers--from the CEO's suite to the production line--to think about the way business decisions are made, and the impact those decisions have.

With the column inside the Business section, I was no longer confident that readers could be compelled to care. So it seemed time to make a switch.

I am trading in the privilege of writing opinion for the luxury of having time to do a lot more reporting before writing. My stories now will focus on Chicago's place in the global world of business, politics and society.

There couldn't be a more compelling story for Chicago and its future. In the modern struggle to thrive, cities don't compete regionally anymore. They're up against the world.

Job trends cross borders, markets move overseas. Health scares come from Beijing in the form of SARS, while the next African AIDS drug might come from North Chicago's Abbott Laboratories in the form of a pill.

Every generation has its story. Globalization is the story of ours. And I will be fortunate to bring it to you.

The column will be missing from the newspaper, and I'll miss writing it. Now it's my challenge to make the work that replaces it matter just as much.